1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine control experimenting apparatus which is able to test the performance of various control parts constituting a control system of an engine in various operation states when the control parts are practically mounted on the engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto now, when the air-fuel ratio of an electronic engine is controlled, either maps or feedback control has been used. Instead of this, a model-based control has been recently put into practice as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-27008.
Meanwhile, since various engine control parts, such as actuators intended to be newly developed for being mounted on an engine, are not necessarily concurrent in the timings of development with each other, it is quite usual to individually conduct the performance test of the respective engine control parts with every engine control part.
Accordingly, when an experiment of each of the engine control parts is practically performed with a real engine system, it often takes a long time to carry out the performance test due to an interaction thereof and so on with the remaining engine control parts. As a result, there occurs such a problem that a development cycle of every engine control part must have been prolonged. Particularly, confirmation of responsiveness or the like at the time of change in the load or during the transient response of the engine must have encountered an extreme difficulty.
Against this problem, an apparatus for testing automobile parts which can test the performance of various engine control parts constituting an engine system to be mounted on a vehicle by using a simulation tool which reproduces the same operating state as that taking place when these parts are practically mounted on a true vehicle is disclosed as one of the proposals in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-206991.
By performing the test by the use of this simulation tool, it has become possible to conduct the test of the performance of respective engine control parts under the conditions approximated to those mounted on the real engine system. Nevertheless, even in a case where this testing toll is employed, it is still difficult to test the performance of the respective engine control parts in all operation states of the engine. Particularly, since the simulation tool is obtained merely by reproducing, on a desk, the same conditions as those when being mounted on an actual system, it is not easy to check both hardware and software which include control performance, such as the responsiveness of an electronic control unit in various operation states of the engine.